Computer - Dell Inspiron E1505

CPU - 1.73 GHz

RAM - 1.0 GB

32 Bit OS 

Operating system - Vista Home Premium

Service Pack 1 installed 

Internal hard drive -  80 GB Hitachi HT541680J

 

I bought an iomega 160 GB eGo external USB-powered hard drive which is supposed to be pre-formatted and ready to go (plug-and-play).  When I plug it in to a USB port the computer "dings", the power light on the drive lights up and I can hear the drive running if I put it up to my ear.

 

However, when I go to START > COMPUTER  the drive doesn't show up on the list of drives.  All that show is the C: drive, the D: Recovery partition of the C: drive, the DVD drive and, if I have it attached, my HP 3180 inkjet printer.

 

If I go to START and right-click COMPUTER and then select MANAGE to get the Computer Management screen and then select Disk Management, I get the screen showing all the drives connected.  This screen shows the C: drive as Disk 0 and the external iomega drive as Drive 1.  It shows them both to be online. It also shows the DVD drive and the printer if I have it connected.  Right-clicking the Drive 1 here and selecting Properties brings up a box labeled TOSHIBA MK1646GSX [the iomega 2.5" drive] USB Device Properties.  Under General it says "This device is working properly"

 

 

OK - The external drive is running.  The computer recognizes that the drive is there. Why doesn't the drive show up in the list under START > COMPUTER?  If it doesn't show up there with a letter assigned I can't use it.  Stranger yet, when the drive is connected to another Vista PC it shows up instantly.  Same thing with a Windows XP machine.  It just doesn't work with mine.

 

iomega doesn't have customer support.  The Geeks at Best Buy don't have a clue why it's acting this way.